


Maki Roll Models

by heyjupiter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, Science Bros Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 19:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15420405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjupiter/pseuds/heyjupiter
Summary: "I've actually never had sushi," Peter said."What, never?" Tony asked."No, May and I usually get Thai. Or Chinese. Or Korean, with Ned's family. Or pho, sometimes, from that--"Tony cut Peter off before he could list every type of Asian cuisine he'd ever had. "Okay, so then wehaveto order from--from the place, right, Bruce?"





	Maki Roll Models

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Science Bros Week 2018, prompt #2: Raw.

"I'm not sure if this will work, but--" Bruce started to say, then cut off when a loud growling sound filled the lab. "Is something...oh no, Peter, was that _you_?"

"Oh, uh, sorry…I'm fine, it's just, sometimes my stomach is kinda loud…." 

"No, _I'm_ sorry...Tony, we forgot to feed Peter."

"That's not true. I gave him some dried mango, uh...a while ago." Tony frowned and opened a random drawer of his lab table. "Hey, here, pistachios!" 

"He's a teenager with a superhuman metabolism, we have to feed him actual food," Bruce said. "We've been working on this stuff for hours."

This was the first time he'd invited Peter to join him in the lab since Bruce had returned. As much as it pained Tony to admit it, he knew that Peter's scientific interests were more closely aligned with Bruce's areas of expertise than with Tony's. Tony had been sure that Bruce could help Peter find a way to improve his already-excellent web fluid formula, but he'd privately been a little worried that the two geniuses wouldn't click on a personal level. It _had_ been a little awkward at first--Peter had been starstruck, and Bruce had been shy, and Tony had chattered too much to fill the silence. But when they moved past the small talk and Bruce took a look at Peter’s formula, his eyes lit up like Christmas. It turned out that their individual flavors of social awkwardness blended together really smoothly. They were like the peanut butter and chocolate of science geek, and it was delicious to behold. Which was maybe how Tony had forgotten about a small detail like lunch.

"Oh, no, it's--" Peter said, when his stomach growled again, even more loudly. "I mean, I guess I could eat." He picked up the pistachios Tony had set in front of him.

"Okay, yeah, sure, let's order something in. What are you in the mood for?"

"Oh, whatever is fine," Peter said. Bruce shrugged. Tony rolled his eyes. Luckily, they had a protocol in place for this.

"FRIDAY, spin the wheel," Tony said.

"You got it, boss,” the AI replied. Instantly, a glowing wheel of fortune appeared in the air. Instead of prizes, each space on the wheel had a different kind of food. Tony had thrown it together after getting frustrated with Bruce's inability to ever pick dinner. 

"That's so cool!" Peter said, although it was probably the least impressive tech the kid had seen all day.

"Looks like pizza!" Tony said.

"Nice, I can always go for pizza. I had pizza for breakfast actually."

"Spin it again, please, FRIDAY," Bruce said.

"That's not the rules of the wheel!" Tony protested. 

"Peter just said he already had pizza today. That's not great...nutritionally speaking."

Tony rolled his eyes at that, but decided not to argue. "Ugh, fine. Let's see...sushi. How about that? Nobody's had sushi in the last 24 hours?"

"I've actually never had sushi," Peter said.

"What, never?" Tony asked.

"No, May and I usually get Thai. Or Chinese. Or Korean, with Ned's family. Or pho, sometimes, from that--"

Tony cut Peter off before he could list every type of Asian cuisine he'd ever had. "Okay, so then we _have_ to order from--from the place, right, Bruce?"

Bruce sighed. "I guess we do."

"FRIDAY, pull up the menu for that sushi place, you know the one." FRIDAY complied, and Tony said, "Okay, kid, take your pick."

"Oh, I don't really know what to--oh, whoa, they have a Spider-Man roll?!" 

"Yeah, so you should get a discount. Well, I'm sure you'd get it for free if you went in person...but that suit of yours seems like it'd hard to eat in and preserve your secret identity."

"Yeah, I usually have to eat when I'm up too high for anyone to see…" Peter said absently. Returning his gaze to the menu, he added, "Spider-Man is crab, avocado, and spicy mayo? That sounds kinda gross…."

"It's good! Most places just call it a spider roll," Tony explained. "This place just gives most of their stuff cute Avengers names. You know, now that I'm saying it, I'm actually kind of surprised that SHIELD hasn't sent them a cease and desist or something."

Bruce said drily, "I think they might have bigger issues to worry about than Super Sushi.”

Peter crunched into a pistachio and asked, "What's tobiko?"

Bruce said, "Peter, if you've never had sushi before, you should probably get like a California roll, or, um--"

"--Or a Hulk roll," Tony crowed. Bruce was uncomfortable with the existence of the Hulk roll, but in a cruel twist of irony, it was one of the better vegetarian rolls on the menu, and Bruce usually ended up reluctantly ordering at least one.

"What's a Hulk roll?"

"It's cucumber and avocado, with a wasabi mayo. It's pretty good," Bruce said glumly.

"Yeah, it's not bad. Not as good as the Iron Man roll, obviously." The Iron Man roll featured crab and yellow pickled daikon. Tony's favorite was actually the Black Widow roll, but he didn't want word to get out about that.

Peter cracked open another pistachio and continued to frown at the menu. From the look on his face, he appeared to be concentrating harder to understand the list of maki than he had needed to concentrate on any of the complex formulas they’d experimented with today.

"You'd better clean up those shells," Tony warned.

"Oh, yeah, I will," Peter said, and then he casually fired off a string of webbing such that it collected his small pile of shells and launched them into the trash can. 

"Wow, that was completely unnecessary," Tony said.

"Oh, sorry."

"No, that was a compliment."

"Oh." Peter smiled and said, "Mr. Stark, would you just order something for me? I can't decide."

"Sure. You do like fish, right?"

"I mean yeah, but I've never had it, like, raw? But I guess people like it like that?"

Tony smirked at the obvious skepticism in Peter's tone. "Some people do, sure. We can get a variety--there's cooked sushi too. And vegetarian sushi, for the deviants who are into that kind of thing."

He didn't need Peter's spidey sense to know Bruce was rolling his eyes behind Tony's back, but he knew he'd have to say something more if he wanted to provoke an actual response. He briefly debated it--Bruce was adorable when he got fired up about carbon footprints--but instead opted to focus on ordering the food as quickly as possible. The Avengers compound was on the farthest edge of the restaurant's delivery radius, and as Bruce had pointed out, they really did need to feed the kid if they were going to keep up the kind of grueling research pace they all thrived on. Fortunately, he'd developed a reputation as a great tipper, so the delivery came pretty quickly.

"Wow, fifteen pairs of chopsticks, this is definitely a new record for us," Tony said.

"How many are you supposed to use?" Peter asked.

"Usually just one pair per person, but they try to estimate how many people are there based on how much food you order...it ends up feeling kind of judgey, honestly."

Bruce silently took a Hulk roll and dipped a piece in wasabi.

"Here, kid, here's the Spider-Man," Tony said, offering a tray to Peter, who looked at it doubtfully.

"Um, maybe I'll try one of the, um, Hulk rolls first?" 

"Sure," Tony said. With its hot sauce drizzle, the Spider-Man was one of the more visually intimidating rolls, which was a little funny, considering. He passed another tray to Peter, who watched Bruce eat and attempted to follow suit, saturating a piece in wasabi.

Tony winced and felt a protective urge wash over him. "Whoa, careful, wasabi's got a kick to it, and that roll already has some in it. You can't judge by how much Bruce took, he's got insane taste buds from living in so many third world countries." This was a lesson Tony had learned the hard way years ago, when Bruce had ordered off-menu at an Indian restaurant and Tony had snagged a bite off his plate before Bruce could stop him. He hadn't been able to taste anything else properly for a week afterwards. 

"I like spicy stuff!" Peter said, opening his chopsticks.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you...oh, I feel like I should take a photo or something, baby's first sushi," Tony said.

"Ha ha," Peter said, with a very teenagery eye roll; Tony knew he'd hated being called "baby." But then Peter's face lit up again and he said, "No, but I should totally take a picture of the Spider-Man one to show Ned. After I eat this one." Then he lifted his chopsticks to his mouth. Immediately, tears started spilling out of his eyes.

At first, Tony laughed and thought about taking a picture of his face, but he started to get a little worried as Peter continued to sputter.

"Peter, you okay?"

Peter coughed, and Tony handed him a bottle of water.

"'m fine, it's just," Peter took a long drink of water, "Um, probably, too spicy. Wow. Wow, it really burns."

"Try something with cream cheese. It'll counteract the heat," Bruce advised, even as he calmly shoveled more wasabi into his own mouth.

Tony passed Peter a Philadelphia roll, and the kid took a grateful bite.

Peter wiped his teary eyes with his sleeve and said, "Oh man, Dr. Banner, I can't believe how much of that stuff you're eating, that is _wild_."

"Yeah, there's a reason we call him the Strongest Avenger," Tony said.


End file.
